<html><head><title>Computational Biologist - Assay Development - South San Francisco, CA</title></head>
<body><h2>Computational Biologist - Assay Development - South San Francisco, CA</h2>
<div><p>As a Computational Biologist dedicated to assay development at Freenome, you will work closely with wet-lab scientists to analyze and translate a wide variety of datasets into biological insights that drive the design and optimization of assays for high-throughput measurement of cell-free nucleic acids and circulating proteins.</p>
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You will be responsible for building and refining bioinformatics pipelines for high-throughput sequencing (including characterizing bias, feature summarization, normalization) and proteomics, identifying and implementing quality-control metrics during the assay development process, and performing in-depth research to guide the development of new assays and computational methods.</p>
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You will also collaborate with machine learning engineers, bioinformatics scientists, and other computational biologists to perform classification and optimization experiments that evaluate the impact of experimental manipulations on end-to-end test performance. You will gain expertise in scaling bioinformatics processes from the R&amp;D lab through to deployment on elastic cloud resources. Your work will be supported by world class software engineers and statisticians.</p>
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Responsibilities:</b></p>
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<li>Apply knowledge of computational biology to guide the development of NGS assays for DNA and RNA analyses, including genome-wide,targeted approaches, and methylation</li><li>Develop new bioinformatics pipelines and use computational tools to extract actionable information from high-throughput-sequencing and proteomics datasets</li><li>Collaborate with wet-lab scientists to rapidly iterate and improve on existing experimental methods by providing real-time assessments of assay performance</li><li>Provide computational and statistical support and guidance to other scientists, especially on matters related to NGS and proteomics data</li><li>Summarize and present research findings in internal meetings, conferences, posters, and peer-reviewed publications</li><br/>
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</p><p><b>What We're Looking For:</b></p>
<ul>
<li>BS or MS in bioinformatics, computational biology, or molecular biology; or relevant work experience</li><li>Functional experience coding in Python and using associated statistical packages (e.g., Numpy, Matplotlib, Pandas) as well as the Unix environment and Bash</li><li>Extensive hands-on experience with common bioinformatics tools such as FastQC, Atropos, Picard, Bowtie, BWA, Samtools, and IGV</li><li>Basic understanding of library preparation methods used to generate next-generation sequencing data, including whole-genome and methylation sequencing, targeted sequencing, and RNA-seq</li><li>Ability to critically evaluate sequencing results using data visualizations and statistical tests in order to assess assay performance, identify technical artifacts and biases, and derive biological insights</li><li>Excellent communication and teamwork skills to take advantage of our highly collaborative environment, working with both experimental and computational scientists</li></ul><p><b>Nice to Haves:</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Ph.D. in bioinformatics, computational biology, or molecular biology</li><li>Industry experience working in a biotechnology, pharmaceutical, or diagnostics environment</li><li>Hands-on experience at the bench preparing libraries for high-throughput sequencing or developing molecular biology assays</li><li>Experience with CLIA/NY/FDA assay validation studies</li><li>Experience with deploying software in a software engineering environment with continuous integration tests and cloud deployment</li></ul><div><p>About Freenome</p>
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Freenome is on a mission to empower everyone with the tools they need to detect, treat, and ultimately prevent diseases.</p>
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By applying advanced machine learning techniques to recent breakthroughs in genomic science, Freenome is developing simple blood tests to detect early-stage cancer and make treatments more effective. The company has raised $238 million from investors such as RA Capital, Polaris Partners, Perceptive Advisors, Andreessen Horowitz, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., GV (formerly Google Ventures), Roche Venture Fund, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, American Cancer Society’s BrightEdge Ventures, Data Collective Venture Capital, and Verily Life Sciences (formerly Google Life Sciences).</p>
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Our Science</p>
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Freenome is building technology to gain an understanding of the body through several analytes derived from blood. These signals include cell-free DNA, methylation of cell-free DNA, cell-free RNA, circulating proteins, and immune profiling derived from thousands of prospective samples. By developing novel statistical learning methods and applying them to integrate various -omics datasets, Freenome is a leader in modeling specific biological mechanisms to capture disease dependent signatures such as gene expression, immune response, tumor burden, the tissue of origin, and 3D chromatin structure.</p>
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By building comprehensive discovery datasets and modeling critical biological systems, Freenome is learning what biological changes are present within the blood between a variety of different disease states including cancer, autoimmune disorders, infections, drug response, and aging. With the combination of Freenome’s datasets, cross-functional technical expertise, and mission to uncover the biological truth, we seek to positively change the lives of millions through the early detection and early treatment of disease.</p>
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Our Culture</p>
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Freenomers are technical and creative, visionary and grounded, empathetic and passionate. We build teams around divergent expertise, which allows us to solve problems and uncover opportunities in unique ways. Freenomers are some of the most talented experts in their fields, coming together to advance healthcare one breakthrough at a time.</p>
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We value empathy, integrity, and trust in one another. That means embracing other’s perspectives, those of our coworkers and those of the patients and communities we serve. It means knowing when to push, and when to listen. At Freenome, we give each other the benefit of the doubt in the belief that we’re all working as a team toward the same goals, and empower others to grow in a collaborative environment.</p>
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What does a successful person look like at Freenome?</p>
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Those who thrive at Freenome prioritize, manage, and execute their own goals in alignment with those of the company. They embrace our values of empathy, integrity, and trust, and hold themselves and their team accountable. They crave collaboration with brilliant minds from unfamiliar fields of study and believe that hiring and mentorship are fundamental to our success. Above all, they welcome and provide constructive feedback and criticism, trusting in the good intentions of others, and secure in the knowledge that embracing mistakes is the best way to learn and move on. For those who crave challenges, understudied problems, and the chance to see their work impact the lives of millions of people affected by cancer every year, there’s no better place to be.</p>
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Freenome explicitly prohibits any form of workplace harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status.</p></div></div></body>
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